Preparation of alcohol-ksextceb beep



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERMAN HEUSER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PREPARATION OF ALCOHOL-REDUCED BEER No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, Hanna): Hansen, a. citizen of the United States, residing at (hicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and uselul luuwovcmcnts in the Preparation of AIcohol-Rcduccd llce1,of which the follow in; is a specification,

My invention relates to the preparation of alcohol-reduccd beer, and in particular its object is to obtain an alcohol-reduced beer that remains light-proof indefinitely under subsequcnt conditions of exposure to light in handling and dispensing the same.

Alcohol-rcduced beers are rendered cloudy pr turbid and acquire the disagreeable taste known as lighbtaste when exposed to sun light because the ultraviolet rays ozonizc the oxygen in the air contained in the beverage, and the ozone on account of its powerful chemical activity readily destroys or dccomposes the organic substanccs,, particu larly those of protein origin such as the albnminoids of beer, suspended in the beverage, even if only minute quantities of ozone are produced. In the presence of air, which is usually absorbed in considerable quantity by alcohol-reduced beer during the steps of cooling and storing in its manufacture and is always introduced by the CO used for carbonation, and in the presence of the peptones and albumoses which exist even in a beer that is clear and brilliant to the naked eye in a partly dissolved or suspended state because on account of their colloidal condition they do not possess perfect solubility, this destruction occurs rapidly sure of the beverage to sun lightgit starts at once upon exposure of thebever e to the direct solar rays as the impact of t e ultraviolet rays traveling at enormous speed against these large moleculed colloidal substances produces the intense molecular en ergy required for the formation of ozone from the air. Further, even in the absence of air the protein substances themselves ulti mately furnish oxygen for the production of ozone when subjected to the direct rays of sun light, although this proceeds slowly.

By my process I d-eoxygenate the air in the beer, content of the alcohol-reduced base liquid.

In order that the various features of my invention may be understood I will describe the deoxygenating treatment as applied to 100 barrels of'alcohol-reduccd beer boiled in Specification of Letters Patent.

with expoand I also stabilize the protein Patented July 1, 1919.

Application filed August 15, 1918. Serial No. 249,967.

atmospheric pressure or in a vacuum pan under reduced pressure to reduce its alcohol, and possessing the customary qualitative and quantitative compothe brew kettle at sition including an alcohol-content of less than l of 1% by volume, for example 0.05% by volume, and stored for a suitable length ot'tiinc at usual cellar temperature. After storage of the beverage for the desired length of time, say one week, it receives an addition of a suitable quantity of potassium pyrosulfite, preferably from 4 to 12 grams per barrel of beverage, according to the amount of free oxygen contained in the bevcragc. Upon the addition of the sulfite the entire batch of beverage is artificially carbonated under a gage pressure of 10 to 15 lbs. per square inch. while the batch is being mechanically stirred. Such stirring promotes the speedy dissolution of the potassium pyrosulfite and its unifor'm distrihu tion in the entire 'batch, whereby the action of the sulfite' upon the beverage is greatly promoted, and such stirring taking place under pressure greatly intensifies such action. carbonating depends upon the quantity of (0 introduced into the beverage per unit of time, and in case the same averages 5- lb. per minute carbonation is usually accom-- plished within 31} to 4 hours, so that by sulfiting the beverage while it is being carbonated the treatment is effectually completed in bulk. After its carbonation'the beverage is ready for the market, and it may be filtered and filled into the trade packages. The snlfiting of the beverage may be ac complished by anysuitable introduction of sulfurous acid into the beverage and the exposure of the beverage to the chemical action thereof, and While it is convenient to accomplish the sulfiting by' si "1y addin to the beverage the salts of Si: prcferabl the alkali sulfites of the two series RH 0 and B 8 0 I may employ sulfurous acid, or I may add SO -gas from a cylinder containing liquefied S0 which'gas changes into sulfurous acid on its arrival in the beverage; the sulfiting with SO as is articularly adaptable to the period 0 articial carbonation, because the SO gas arising from liquefied S0 in a cylinder enters the beverage by its own pressure without any external aid, as the vapor tension of the -gas at the temperature at which such cylinder would ordinarily be stored and the urous aci gas introduced is amply high to overcome the carbonatin pressure, and moreover it is readily applie to carbonating in. bulk because the amount of SO gas required for a certain bulk quantity of beverage being relatively large makes it easy to correctly measare off the s, and any slight error in measuring, w ich is always possible in practice, be omes negligible for so large a (1118.111

titv of lnany forni orv way I accomplish the sulfitin a ter the alcohol reduction, and preferaby during, artificial carbonation under pressure and while a bulk quantity is mechanically stirred or agitated, because the sulfitin of a bulk quantity which is mechanica ly stirred commences and is accelerated for the entire batch of beverage forth with upon the introduction of the; sulfiting material, and thus it is at no time locally confined as it would be if the beverage were ndt stirred.

The final beverage contains a small amount of sulfurous acid, in the above instance about 0.002%, the larger portion of which is chemically bound, while the smaller one is free. Instead of air, which is a mixture of active oxygen and inert nitrogen, the

final bevera e is shown by analysis to contain for one 100cc c. only about (1.016 of a gram of inert nitrogen of atmospheric origin as distinct from the nitrogen contained in the nitrogenous substances of'the beverage, as the oxy en has been used a for the formation sulfuric acid, whicli disappeared as such by forming sulfate with one or more bases contained in the organic salts alwa s present in the base beverage. The final verage has the peculiar properties of not being rendered cloudy or turbid and (if not we airing the light-taste when exposed to di used sun-light; the sulfiting removes the oxygen of the air in the beverage and this absence of free oxygen on ables the beverage to obviate the ozonizing cfi'ect of the diffused rays of 'sun light. The sulfiting also ostpones the ozonizm action or effect of t e direct rays of sun igh't to such gnbextent that tbhe bear remains glimpaire V ex ure eyon an perio requimdiii 'der flie ordinary or iisual conditions of its use in the absence ofair in thebeverage the decomposition of the protein content by thev direct rays of sun light and the consequent ozoni'zing of the oxygenl molecular bound in such content occur only after plfolonged and repeated expfiBums and when instead of air a small amountot sulfurous 'acidis present in the beverage ozonizing action is still longer goestpoiietlbe cause the acid being first oxi izcdto uses up thej'ozone formed in the first or imf tial stage oi'theozoniziug process, andas this requires many days during constant eitmm-a Hm beverage stands exposure to the direct rays for exceptionally lon periods without impairment. in either bril iancy or taste.

The deoxygenation of the air by sulfiting the beverage also sufpplements the slight airremoving action 0- the small quantity of live yeast containing ferment-able matter, or of the kraeusen, which is added to alcoholreduced 'beer to make yeast-treated beer, usually at the rate'of 5 barrels of kraeusen pitched to the barrel with 11} pounds of thick fluid yeast to 100 barrels of beer before it is stored. In the manufacture of regular beer the large quantities of air absorbed by the wort during cooling are removed amp the main fermentation, and the fermente beer contains relatively large quantities of 00 which protects it against the absorption of any considerable amount of air during subsequent stora e, and what amount of air it may absorb uringstorage is removed by the strong kraeusen fermentation usually made by the addition of 15 to 25% of kraeusen. But alcohol-reduced beer is not subjected to a strong fermentation like regular beer which goes through the usual main fermentation, and the amount of live yeast containing fermentable matter which is added for yeast-treating or yeast-fen menting is too small to remove any considerable amount of air absorbed during coo1- ing or to protect the beverage against the absorption of air during storage. Therefore, in making yeast-treated or yeast-fermente'd alcohol-reduced beer I supplement 100 the insuliici'ent air-removing action of the small quantity of live yeast containing fermentable matter by adding the sulfiting substance-which uses up the oxygen of the air for its own oxidation. The sul-flting preserves the taste and flavor of the bevera and particularly the aromatic flavoring su stances consisti largely of aldehyd% and ethers produced fiuring the yeast-treatment,

and it also restores or regenerates the same when they have been changed and generates new flavoring su'bstanceson account of the sulfurous [101d formin with-the aldehydes new additive compoun s. Also, as the introduction of thesulfitin substances in the .115 beverage tends to imp e the yeast-trea at on account of, the antiseptic or resertfive property of these substances,- prefe ly do the sulfiting of the beverage after it is yeast-treated or yeasbfermented.

The sulfiting should 'be done with discrimination; the amount of the'sulfi'ting substance added must not be too large, because this would destroy the aroma and taste of the buyers as Well as impair its wholeso-mc- 25 am. e size of the addition depends upon thg ahiount of air absorbed by the bevelage durin its manufacture and upon the amounts air introduced with the (70., used forcarbonating, and further upon the 1.39

aumunt 0f sugar and the armna substances, more particularly of aldehyde structure, with which it unites and forms very stable combinations of iurr-asmi pleasing aroma. and tha size of the addition increasrs as the amount of these substances increases; Hawewr, for a \rrage conditions 4 in 1:: grams nl' potassium pyrusulfitv or its equivalent in S( or 80 per barrel (If la-Vrragv would be suliiriunt fur alcohol-rmlurml hem of customary r-mnpnsiliun. While almhnl has a distinctly retarding influence upon suifiting, the wry slight variations in the amount of alcnlml found in alr'uhol-rmlucecl l ra-rs only inllue-nru thP f-]'1tk1l of oxidation of Si) to S0 hr alruhul is uthrru 'isu imliiirr ul tn the sul'l'uruus arid, and therefore it (luvs not nerd in he considered in regulating the amount of sulfite m or sO -gas to he, added.

Of course. the, term alvoholreduced a1)- ,plies t0 beverages from which the alcohol has linen either entirely rmum'mil or only so far that they come within the classifi cation of non-intoxicating beverages.

I ulaim:-

The stop in the process of preparing iii-if!#iiUl-lUlliNKWl liver which consists in deoxidizing alcuhol-reduced bvar by sulfiting it while it is being mechanically stirred and artificially carbonated.

The process of preparing alrohol-rw nluceml hour which consists in (lo-oxidizing ah-uhul reduced beer by yeast-treating and sulfiting it.

The process of making: almholreduced iJlUl' light-proof which consists in subjecting alcohol-reduced hvvr to deuxygunatiun by treating it with from 4 to 12 grams of potassium pyrosulfitu per barrel of beer.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presenreof two witnesses.

HERMAN HEUSER.

Vitnesses:

J. BIoRoBraaTs, Bnnxms GURMLEY. 

